At the recent White House Summit on Worker Voice, workers, union leaders and business owners gathered to discuss the difficult living circumstances for workers at various low paying US jobs, especially in the fast food industry. And to explore solutions. President Obama gave a strongly pro-union talk and explained that the top income bracket had always taken in a large percentage of the nation’s income, but that it had previously been “in the context of a dynamic economy where wages and incomes were rising and most Americans felt stable and secure.”
The economy is changing again, because, Obama says, “technology has made it easier for companies to do more with less.” Plus world markets allow them to “shift operations around the global supply chain.” (Read: move jobs overseas.) The President came down strongly on the side of organized labor in — and its importance especially in the face of rapid changes in the 21st century economy. “Our culture as a whole started somehow extolling Greed Is Good.” You can hear this remark at the 15:00 minute mark (video below) of this very candid discussion and economic history primer from the President. Obama displays his deeply progressive roots here, sounding as close to the Bernie Sanders platform as you’ll ever hear him. “As union membership has fallen, inequality has risen,” Obama says, before noting that union membership is “as low today as it’s been in 80 years.”
